


Always watching

by BabyGoodbye (orphan_account)



Series: Always Watching... [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective!Loki, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-24
Updated: 2012-08-24
Packaged: 2017-11-12 19:52:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/495059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BabyGoodbye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki watches over Clint from Asgard, wanting to make sure that his former slave stays safe, only to see a mission gone wrong and embark on a spontaneous mission of his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always watching

He’d tried to shake this feeling. It was an idiotic notion, some ill-gotten devotion and for a mortal no less. Such a pathetic and pointless race and yet there was one man who’d wormed his way into every thought of his, awake or dreaming. The worst part of it was that he knew it was his own fault; he was the one who had taken him and so manipulated him that in some moments the liesmith himself had forgotten reality. And the reality now was this: Loki Laufeyson standing at the edge of the broken Bifrost, pining after his archer, his hawk, his… everything. 

“Can you see him?”

“Yes.”

Loki growled at the gatekeeper in frustration. He wanted more than that! He wanted answers, knowledge, to see what Clint was doing at this very moment and above all, to know that he was safe. He didn’t doubt Clint’s skills; they’d done him well enough in the past… but he worried like he’d never worried for any other. Loki knew how easy mortals were to break. He didn’t want his hawk to be broken. 

“Well? Is he safe? What is he doing? Where is he?” The desperation in his voice was rather unnerving. 

“He is safe. He works undercover – a mission in London.”

Satisfied, Loki began walking away. Then Heimdall spoke again, his eyes still clouded with the visions he was seeing.

“Something has gone wrong. He had been found out… an information breech at headquarters. He has shot one. And another.” So suddenly the gatekeeper turned his gaze upon Loki, whose lips were parted in anticipation, waiting to hear again that his hawk was safe. He was blessed with no more of Heimdall’s words. He assumed the worst.

“Get me down there!”

“I cannot. And even if I could, you are forbidden to leave Asgard.”

Loki took it up with his father, promising his return and claiming the man’s life was at stake. For all Loki knew it might already be gone but he’d rather see for himself. Until then he would send silent prayers to every deity he knew of – helpful or otherwise. Of course Odin was wary to believe the trickster. It wouldn’t be unlike him after all to fabricate and act out a scheme to escape.

“Father, while we stand and argue, a man dies! Let me go!”

At last it was agreed. The Allfather unlocked Loki’s own magic that had been locked away in exchange for his provisional freedom so that he might transport himself to London. On a whole, total transport between realms was a tiring process but he landed easily enough at his destination. He didn’t stop to look around. He was vaguely aware that this was somewhere in the underground tube system, a discontinued track perhaps but he didn’t care. Loki only cared to find his hawk and from the sound of masculine grunting and muffled cries of pain, he knew he wouldn’t be too difficult to find. 

Loki jumped down onto the tracks, following the sounds while wary of a tube that actually would never come. When he came again into a dimly lit station, he saw it all. Two dead men, an arrow through one’s chest and one through the other’s skull (what undercover mission allowed Clint to carry his favoured weapon, Loki didn’t know but querying it was not something he had time for) and four living, stood over another. Clint!

His tormenters managed only one more hit each; a steel capped boot to the ribs, an elbow to the head, a palm strike to the jaw, a drawn blade formerly inserted somewhere in Clint’s body… Loki would have them all fall, his old weapons – daggers – infused with his magic flown easily through their hearts. But they were on Asgard, left behind in the weapons vault. Not that that makes it any more challenging for Loki to dispatch of the mortals. It was not difficult to twist one’s arm back, bending his body into the other who so swung his knife in some haphazard idea of defence, cutting up his companion enough for Loki to toss him to one side, letting him fall unconscious and bleed out. There was one. Three to go. The one with the knife was next, quickly disarmed by Loki’s quick hand striking a pressure point in the man’s robust upper arm, shocking his muscle into releasing the knife. It was quickly snatched from the ground and revolved in a slash through the air, hacking the neck of the one who he had aimed for and cutting into the hand of one who tried to stop him. As the man recoiled in pain, Loki drove the blade into his chest and twisted, shoving both injured, bleeding men aside. The last man was long gone by now, cowardice overtaking his mortal mind. Disgusting. 

Finally he could focus on Clint. The man’s state was shocking, not enough to make Loki heave but enough for him to want to avert his eyes. His face was bloody and bruised, his nose clearly broken. There was a large tear in his uniform… No, not uniform. He was undercover so these were just regular clothes: jeans and what was a tight t-shirt but now just scraps of fabric showing deep and bloody gashes in the archer’s torso. Loki stepped closer.

Fear crept into Clint’s eyes as he finally registered the presence of the God he had not seen since Loki had been cast back to Asgard in chains. His voice was pained, strangled even when he uttered Loki’s name. 

“Yes, hush now, my hawk… I mean you no ill.”

“S-Sure, whatever,” Clint coughed back at him. Loki sighed; he knew he should have expected this. Despite his own fall into fondness he couldn’t expect the same from the one whose mind he had captured. Loki imagined that the archer had been hoping never to lay eyes on the god again. 

“Really, now please trust me.”

Deft fingers ripped the remains of Clint’s shirt as gently as possible from his body, eyes scanning his injuries again. He guessed that the man would have a few broken ribs which were beyond Loki’s healing abilities but a hand hovered over each knife wound in turn, seeping green energy into the man’s body. Slowly but surely his wounds closed up. Loki smiled a little and moved to Clint’s face, cringing at his nose.

“This one might hurt a little. Never fixed a nose before.”

Clint whined but did nothing to stop Loki reaching out and snapping his nose back into proper alignment, only yelping at the movement. To this Loki whispered a soft apology and kissed the man’s forehead thoughtlessly. Clint’s eyes were blown wide. Loki apologised again. 

“Why you here?” Clint rasped.

“For you.”

“No, really.”

“I’m serious.” Loki pulled on the archer gently, sitting him in his own lap and began dabbing his face and body clean of dried blood with a magically acquired wet rag. “I have missed you a great deal and I have watched over you for a long time to make sure you were always safe… Today, clearly, you were not. So I came for you. Letting you die wasn’t something I could cope with.”

It seemed to take Clint a moment to process this information but eventually Loki was met by a slow nod. 

“S’pose you think this means I forgive you for what you did?” Clint muttered dryly. 

Loki shook his head. “I am not dense enough to think that I will ever be forgiven. Nor do I desire your forgiveness for I am aware it is not something I deserve. It was unforgiveable… More so that I enjoyed our time together. There were moments I could forget that we were not actually of the same team.”

“Could be though. If you weren’t such an ass,” Clint smirked, a glimmer of amusement in his pale blue eyes. Loki smiled and nodded, putting aside the rag. For a moment his fingers ghosted over Clint’s bare chest; he relished the feeling and appreciated the body he saw but it was just a moment. In the moment that followed, Loki had apparated a new shirt for him, securing it on his body to make sure he was warm. His other arm remained as it was, around Clint’s waist to keep him propped up.

“Yeah… Shame I’m such an ass.”

Clint chuckled at him, curling slightly to nuzzle into Loki’s chest. “Thanks though,” he muttered. “For savin’ me and all…” Loki shrugged. It was nothing really. He hadn’t even thought about it (which was outrageous for him) before coming to his rescue, jumping spontaneously into action as he had. And it was worth it for this moment, sitting with him in a forgotten London Underground tube station, working his hand over Clint’s face and through his hair, providing comfort to him.

“Don’t worry my hawk… I’ll always watch over you.”


End file.
